This invention relates to an improved breakfast pastry product of the type which is prepared with an interior filling, which is cooked, packaged, and frozen. The user thaws the product and toasts it, or toasts directly from the freezer. Such toaster-breakfast pastries present numerous technical problems in their preparation, storage and stability.
One of the primary problems for such toaster pastry products is the development of a product which not only has high flavor, but is also storage stable. One rather logical method of achieving high flavor is to utilize a high moisture content product with a very large quantity of interior filling and minimal surface contact. However, while this might maximize the flavor impact for the consumer, it necessarily will cause product stability problems.
For example, a larger quantity of filling means that there is a minimization of area of interface contact between the filling and the interior dough surface. The area of this surface contact, i.e., the interface, is a potential area of instability caused by numerous chemical degradation reactions. Amongst the things that may often be noted at the interface are the following: moisture migration from the filling to the dough which develops sogginess in the dough; acid migration from a fruit filling to the dough which develops a loss in pH and fruit tartness; color changes because the filling color changes with changes in acidity; dough and filling flavor loss; and, degradation of product structural integrity.
One commonly employed technique heretofore used to overcome these significant stability problems, has been to develop toaster products of very low moisture content. Decreasing the moisture content is desirable because it increases shelf life. For example, some products have been sold with as low a filling moisture content as 15% to 20% by weight, and a dough moisture content of from about 8% to about 12%. While it is true that such low moisture content products have good shelf storage, the shelf storage is achieved at the sacrifice of product taste and flavor quality. In other words, because the product is dry, it is shelf stable, but it also has a very low flavor impact and mouth feel quality.
Thus, the manufacturers of such toaster pastry products have been faced with a dilemma. Those things which make the product most desirable for the consumer, namely, flaky, crispy tender exterior crust, tender and moist interior, high percentage of filling and low percentage of filling contact with the pastry crust, as well as high moisture level, also make the product most undesirable from the standpoint of storage and stability.
It is therefore a primary objective of the present invention to provide a breakfast pastry product which is of excellent product quality, both from the standpoint of flavor and structural integrity, and yet which is uniquely stable for long periods of time.
It is another objective of the present invention to achieve the above described result with a product which has a significantly higher moisture level than other breakfast pastry products heretofore prepared by cooking, freezing, thawing, and subsequent toasting.
A still further object of this invention is to prepare a breakfast pastry product which has a very high moisture content and as well, a long shelf life stability when frozen.
An additional object of the present invention is to prepare a product which because of the dough composition and the filling composition, has substantially the same water activity level (Aw) for both the dough portion of the composition and the filling portion of the composition, thus minimizing moisture migration at the interface between the cooked dough and the filling.
Another objective of the present invention is to prepare a toaster pastry product with a fruit or acid type filling which has a controlled buffering pH system to provide acid stability to minimize acid migration which in turn controls color change and flavor loss of the filling.
An even further objective of the present invention is to provide a toaster pastry product of good structural integrity, that is to say, one which has good product seams, one which will not become soggy and break, and yet one which has a tender, flaky exterior surface and a bready interior with good cell development.
The method and manner of accomplishing each of the above objectives, as well as others, is achieved by careful control of filling viscosity and pH, and control of dough Aw and filling Aw, combined with control of dough composition and processing. A detailed description follows hereinafter.